i m john berman filling in for jake tapper today, we do begin with the world lead. president obama asked him to do it. secretary of state john kerry flew to baghdad to ask him in person, but iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki appeared to shut the door today on requests for him to form a sort of unity government, one that would include sunnis that maliki has shut out of the process for years. this would be all in the hopes of will quelling the uprising by sunni militants tearing iraq apart. so if the prime minister won t play ball the way the u.s. wants it could mean those air strikes that maliki has been begging for might never come. president obama is sending a number of military advisers into iraq. as many as 300 total. the first wave of them getting down to business right now assessing the iraqi military strength and movements by the terrorism group isis which stands for the islamic state in iraq and syria. isis is taking over huge chunks of iraq in air strikes are being carried
yes, syria. the country the u.s. accused of gassing its own people and threatened with air strikes of its own less than a year ago, syria is now targeting isis, a common enemy that it shares with the united states. local iraqi officials say syrian warplanes came across the border and over isis control and not without collateral damage. at least 57 civilians were killed and more than 120 others wounded and that s according to iraqi officials. syria denies this and so does the iraqi military. isis all over iraq just like in iraq. the terrorist militia is threatening the syrian government of bashar al assad and other rebel groups that oppose assad. keeping straight who hates whom in this scenario, it is exceedingly difficult. these air strikes by syria follow a report by the new york times that iran has been flying sur veilingance drones into iraq and secretly sending two flights
a day to baghdad with 70 tons of supplies. with syria and iran battling the same enemy as the u.s. it is making for some very strange bedfellows. here s jim acosta. reporter: all of a sudden the u.s. may have some unlikely helping hands in iraq. u.s. officials believe syria launched air strikes on isis military strong holds. adding the syrian air assault, iran is conducting drone surveillance over isis forces. with that kind of assistance from two longtime adversaries is not sitting well with the obama administration. we ve made it clear to everyone in the region that we don t need anything to take place that might exacerbate the sectarian divisions that are already at a heightened level of tension. reporter: the problem, secretary of state john kerry, said after his trip to the region, is that iraq needs to take care of its own security. that s one of the reasons why
political process. our thanks to jim acosta for that report. joining me now here in new york fareed zakaria host of fareed zakaria. as if it it could get any more complicated. the enemy of my enemy is a dictator. it s not like the white house can call syria and say thanks for this, but to an extent was this inevitable by the u.s. saying we re not going get involved with air strikes right now by saying the response will be very, very limited. does that create a vacuum where syria and iraq were bound to get involved? i think they were bound to get involved anyway and they have been involved for the last several years. we have to remember that we think of the middle east in terms of borders that are real and hard and states and we think of it in terms of dictators and democrats. what s really happening in that part of the world is a sectarian war between the should i as and the sunnis and this crosses all borders so that isis is battling the shia government in baghdad. it s battling w
their use of chemical weapons. because of that, white house officials are quick to make the distinction between assad and iranian leaders working with the u.s. and other world powers to limit their nuclear program. do syria and iran qualify as partners in the region? syria certainly not and we consider the moderate opposition and the group that we will deal with diplomatically there. when it comes to irani think i ve described what we have done already which is to have some discussions on the sidelines of other meetings and they re wholly separate and apart from the conversations that are ongoing about our concerns and about iran s nuclear program. in the meantime, count on more blood in iraq. sending his own troops to take on isis, iraq s shiite prime minister is so far rejecting a proposal for greater power sharing for sunnis. the call for a national salvation government is a coup against the constitution and the